Method and apparatus for creating a self booting operating system image backup on an external USB hard disk drive that is capable of performing a complete restore to an internal system disk

摘要

Backup applications that use externally connected hard disk drives for storing full image backups of a windows system disk or compressed image or file by file backups of a windows system disk. A system incrementally updates the images, including the system registry, and puts information on the external drive that makes it bootable.

主权项

1. A computer system, comprising:
a computer system with: a system BIOS; at least one main computer file storage unit, storing plural user files including an operating system that operates according to a system registry; at least one backup computer file storage unit, connected over a computer-controlled bus; and said computer system operating to execute a first software application program and a second software application program; said second software application program will:
initially prompt a user for a password that will be used to lock said backup computer file storage unit; andsaid second software application program will encrypt or obfuscate said password and save said password such that it can be retrieved and used without prompting a user for said password a second time; andnormally maintain said backup computer file storage unit as locked in a way that requires said password to unlock said backup computer file storage unit; said first software application program will initially be activated by a user or automatically launched after its initial activation according to a schedule, and notify said second software application program to unlock said backup computer file storage unit; and once said second software application program has unlocked said backup computer file storage unit, said first software application program will backup said main computer file storage unit by copying plural files from said main to said backup computer file storage unit as part of a backup operation which copies plural files from said main computer file storage unit to said backup computer file storage unit, and once all files have been copied from said main computer file storage unit to said backup computer file storage unit, said first software application program will notify said second software application to lock said backup file storage unit, and said second software application program will when requested from said first software application program lock said backup computer file storage unit; and said second software application program will, based on detecting information indicative of a failure in said main computer file storage unit, carry out an operation to allow a user to boot from said backup computer file storage unit by unlocking said backup computer file storage unit in the case of a failure in said main computer file storage unit.